Defined in section 238 of the Finance Act 2004, a pension input period (PIP) is the period over which an individual's pension input amount in relation to an arrangement under a registered pension scheme is measured for the purposes of testing the total pension input amount against the annual allowance. How a PIP is set varies according to whether an arrangement is defined benefit or defined contribution. An individual may have more than one PIP if he belongs to more than one scheme or arrangement.